• Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, does not believe in cryptocurrencies, calling them a vehicle for scams and a Ponzi scheme.
  • Torvalds was once rumored to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, but he clarified it was a joke and denied owning a Bitcoin fortune.
  • Torvalds also dismissed the idea of technological singularity as a bedtime story for children, saying continuous exponential growth does not make sense.
  • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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    6 months ago

    Let’s not forget that crypto also enable wide deployment of ransomwares (which was not possible due to the lack of untraceable online payment at scale), while less and less ecommerce platform allow crypto payment. If this trend continues, eventually no one would use crypto except for speculation and paying off ransom.

    • RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 months ago

      Even online crime often settles with gift cards though because it’s too much of a hassle to explain to the Average Joe how to setup an account and buy and transfer crypto-tokens.

      • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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        6 months ago

        Scams are not much affected by cryptocurrency existence, but ransomware existence specifically relies on crypto for scaling reason. They infect millions of computers, the ransoms are being handled automatically because it’s way too much to be handled manually with gift cards.

      • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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        6 months ago

        The internet has far more beneficial uses than malicious uses. We currently can’t say the same with cryptocurrency due to its diminishing utility.

        E-commerce platforms were never the target anyway

        What’s the use of money if not for paying stuff? In the early days, a lot more shops (online and offline) accept crypto payments. These days it’s mostly vpn companies that accept them.